


The Aftermath

by happy_mystic



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Canon Dialogue, Undertale Genocide Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-11 00:59:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16465667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happy_mystic/pseuds/happy_mystic
Summary: Sans keeps a promise, and Asgore finds a child in his garden.





	The Aftermath

King Asgore Dreemur raised his head. He had been tending to the same patch of flowers in his garden for about fifteen minutes now.

He knew what was coming. How could he not?

The news had reached him not long ago. Word of a strange, soulless being, slaughtering everyone in their path.

They had killed the entire royal guard. They had killed Undyne.

Strangest of all, a flower had appeared in his garden - one with a face, that could speak - sobbing, begging him to run away.

But Asgore had stayed where he was. He saw no point in running.

What good was a king without a kingdom?

There was a sound of flowers being rustled from behind him. The king of the monsters let out a long and heavy sigh.

So this was it.

This is where it all ended.

Steeling himself, Asgore turned around to face the intruder.

What he saw was not what he expected.

Sans, the skeleton, was standing there, leaning against the door and panting from exhaustion. A human child lay, battered and limp, in his arms.

Asgore could do nothing but stare.

The skeleton looked up and gave a nervous laugh.

“Yeah, I’m, uh, gonna need your help here.”

\---

Sans was breathing heavily. He could feel sweat beginning to gather on the base of his skull.

They’d been fighting for hours now.

He glanced up, with a nervous smile.

“You, uh - really like swinging that thing around, huh?”

This kid was stronger than he’d thought. He couldn’t keep this up for much longer.

Well...there was one more thing he could try.

It was a long shot, but if it worked, it would mean they could stop fighting. He owed it to the old lady (even if he did have to break his promise, in the end).

“Listen. i know you didn't answer me before, but...” He took a deep breath. “Somewhere in there. i can feel it. There's a glimmer of a good person inside of you. The memory of someone who once wanted to do the right thing. Someone who, in another time, might have even been... a friend?”

Sans didn’t truly believe what he was saying, honestly. But, although he didn’t want to admit it...part of him was hoping what he said would turn out to be true.

“Come on, buddy,” Sans glanced up plaintively. “Do you remember me?”

The human stayed where they were, the knife held in midair.

They were shaking. Their teeth were grit. Like they were fighting - pushing - from the inside.

The tension broke in the form of a scream, that echoed through the hall.

“HELP ME!”

Sans’s eye sockets widened.

“W-what?”

In an instant, the human drew back into themselves with a snarl. They lunged towards Sans.

He dodged away just in time. His mind was racing.

Why would they say something like that, if they truly intended to kill?

It could be a trick, but...

Something wasn’t right here.

And Sans wasn’t willing to let it go.

Acting on a hunch, he put up a wall of bones right in front of the child, trapping them in mid-lunge.

Then, he grabbed hold of the human’s SOUL and _pulled_.

Sans felt a give - like something being pulled loose - like a bone from a socket. He almost tripped over his own feet from the sudden loss of tension.

He looked up.

The human was behind the bones, crumpled to the floor and breathing heavily.

Floating in the air, in front of the bones, was...something else.

Two glowing red eyes, and a simple grin.

“You know,” The voice was thin, but still carried through the corridor. “You’re really starting to get on my nerves.”

Sans stood, frozen in place.

“I suppose it was only a matter of time before you figured it out.” They rolled their eyes. “Hmph. If you want something done right, eventually, you’ve just got to do it yourself.”

Sans stared at the human, and then at the thing that had been using it.

He had felt angry before. Now he felt sick.

He should have known something was off about this whole thing. Why hadn’t he put two and two together?!

“Unfortunately for you, Sans,” the figure continued, “You’ve just made things a lot harder for yourself.”

Sans sucked in a breath. He clenched one hand... ...and then unclenched it with a slow, steady exhale.

“Actually,” Sans began. He took a step forward. “I think it’s the other way around.”

Sans walked down the hall, towards the face. He raised a hand, sending the bone wall away.

“Y’see, before, I had no real reason to keep fighting.” He walked past the face and came to a stop, positioning himself squarely between it and the human.

“Now I do.”

The face let out a high pitched giggle. “Come on, Sans. You were able to defeat my vessel plenty of times,” they gestured to the child, still lying on the ground. “But what can you do to a being with no soul?” It grinned even wider. “Can you attack _air_?”

Sans shrugged.

“Dunno.”

His eyes darkened.

“Let’s find out.”

Sans stepped forward, extending an arm in front of him.

Another of the giant, canid skulls appeared, hovering in the air - larger than any other he had summoned before, almost too big to fit within the hall.

He had to cheat a little to summon this one, but it was worth it.

The red eyes widened, and the smile disappeared.

The beast opened wide its jaws.

A great burst of light exploded through the room.

Sans smiled - for real this time.

“Looks like I get to keep my promise after all.”

\---

Frisk opened their eyes.

They were laying on something soft and comfortable. Their body didn’t hurt anymore.

Slowly, they sat up and looked around.

They were lying in a bed. The bed at New Home.

That’s right. Chara had mentioned...

Frisk sat up straight.

Chara!

Frisk glanced down at themselves, staring at their hands. They gently wiggled their fingers.

After a moment, they realized.

Chara was no longer there. They were alone.

Frisk lay back down, breathing a sigh of relief. Closing their eyes again, they tried to think back to what had happened.

After climbing the mountain, they remembered falling down a hole, and landing in a patch of flowers.

They had heard a voice, asking for their help, saying that the two of them could help each other.

And then...

Frisk couldn’t remember much of it.

They had been angry. There was fighting, and yelling, and dust, and...

Frisk squeezed their eyes shut. Their head hurt.

They threw the covers off and eased themselves onto the floor.

Slowly, Frisk opened the door and poked their head out. Amidst the quiet of the hallway, they could hear voices from the other room.

They stole a quick glance into the mirror.

It was just them.

\---

Frisk crept across the carpet to the edge of the hall, listening in on the conversation.

“So it wasn’t truly them that did this?” said a deep voice.

“No,” Another voice responded. “They were being...manipulated, somehow.” That was Sans, Frisk remembered.

“Who? Who would manipulate a child like that?”

Sans gave a dry chuckle. “I, uh, didn’t exactly have time to ask.”

Frisk peaked over from behind the wall.

Sans was sitting in a chair, with a cup of tea on the table next to him, glancing down at his hands. A large, white monster in purple robes stood across from him. Frisk could guess that this was Asgore.

“I see.” He turned away.

The room was quiet. Asgore stared into the fireplace, although no fire was lit.

“So, uh...” Sans drummed his finger bones together. “What now?”

“What do you mean, ‘what now?’”

Sans turned.

Asgore was facing away from him, his head lowered. He spoke very quietly.

“Everything I have done, I have done for the good of my people.” His hands were shaking at his sides. “So that they might have hope. So that they might one day taste freedom.” He began to pace through the room.

“What I did was horrible. She was right to leave me for it. But still I kept doing it, for their sakes.”

Asgore buried his face in his paws. “The look in their eyes, every one of them...they were so afraid....so helpless....I still see them, every night, in my dreams...”

He swung an arm through the air.

“It was all for NOTHING!”

His fist collided with a vase on the table, knocking it and the golden flower within it to the ground. It shattered in a loud crash.

Asgore sank to the floor. His shoulders shook.

Sans raised a hand. He looked like he wanted to say something. But he stay silent, and slowly let it drop. The two monsters stayed where they were.

“Um...excuse me...”

Both monsters turned at the sound of a third voice.

Frisk stepped into the room, hesitantly.

“I think I might be able to help.”

\---

Sans rose from his chair.

“What are you doing here, young one? You should be resting.” Asgore didn’t quite meet Frisk’s eyes as he approached them.

“I can go back.”

Sans drew in a breath.

“Go back?” Asgore repeated. “What do you mean?”

Frisk rubbed at their hands, trying to explain.

“When I...when we...were traveling through the Underground, every time we died, we’d go back to our last point...where we had been before. We could even go back to where we first started, if we wanted.”

Their face fell.

“I did want to, a lot of times. But they wouldn’t let me. I couldn’t do anything when they were in my body.”

Frisk looked back up.

“But now that they’re gone, I can go back! I can do it right this time.” They balled their hands into small fists. “I’ll go through again, without hurting anybody!”

“A second chance...” Asgore murmured. He glanced at Sans.

Sans looked up. His expression was unreadable.

“What would happen to us?” he asked.

Frisk looked down, folding their fingers together.

“I...I don’t know.”

The two adults turned to face each other, speaking softly.

“You seem worried about this.”

Sans lowered his head. “Yeah.”

“It doesn’t have to be like this, Sans. We could fix our mistakes, too,” Asgore insisted. “Why not take that chance?”

Sans’s eyes were still cast downward. “We wouldn’t remember any of it.”

Asgore’s gaze darkened.

“I wouldn’t want to.”

“That’s not the point.” Sans shook his head.“We’ll just end up doing the same things we did this time around.”

“But this time, we could have a reason for doing it.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, Sans pressed his palms deep into his eyesockets. His body sagged. He looked so tired.

“Look, even if we do get a different outcome this time around...who’s to say it’ll be any better?”

There was a silence in the room. Asgore shook his head grimly.

“I can’t say that. But...”

He lowered his head again.

“I do know that nothing can get better the way it is now.”

Sans said nothing.

Taking a deep breath, Asgore turned back to Frisk.

“Are you sure about this?”

Frisk nodded.

“I want to do it.”

Asgore closed his eyes, breathing out a sigh.

“Then do it. Reset, and do it all again. And, when you do...”

He met Frisk’s eyes.

“Please... think better of me, human.”

Frisk nodded.

They took a moment, glancing around the house. Everything so quiet, so gray. So cold.

Things could be better than this. They knew that they could.

Frisk took in a deep breath, and let it out.

“I’m ready now.”

Asgore knelt in front of Frisk, taking their small hand in his giant paws.

“Be brave, young one,” Asgore squeezed their hand gently. “Stay determined.”

Frisk nodded.

Sans came forward, too. For a moment, he simply stood there, silent.

Finally, he raised his head, meeting Frisk’s eyes.

“You’re a good kid.”

Frisk beamed.

Sans grinned back, reaching forward to ruffle their hair. “Good luck, buddy.”

Frisk stepped back, looking at the two monsters who had rescued and cared for them.

They managed a small smile towards them, and, raising a hand, pulled up a transparent menu as if from nowhere.

After pressing a few buttons, a large, glowing button appeared before them, bearing the word, RESET.

Frisk took a deep breath. Shutting their eyes, they pressed their hand down on the button.

Their vision started to go dark. Things were starting to fade away.

Frisk wasn’t sure what would happen next.

They were scared.

But they were determined.

They would fix it.

Or at least, they would try.

With a smile, Frisk disappeared too.


End file.
